ABSTRACT
Bias, particularly racial bias, was identified from the outset as being especially characteristic of children's books on history and geography. Until the 1950s, it was virtually inescapable in any textbook and many of the examples that researchers quote come still from updates of old standbys, such as S.Crawford's Man Alone (Longman 1970). Even the title is indicative of the approach: it is true too of many geography and history textbooks that women are invisible. They have little place in recorded history unless they were the rare figures of power. Geography textbooks tend to feature two or three men to every one woman in their photographs of the people of the country. And yet, as the United Nations Report of 1980 stated: ‘Women constitute half the world's population, perform nearly two thirds of its work hours, receive one fourth of the world's income, and own less than one hundredth of the world's property.’
